« La mare aux oiseaux »
Tapestry of Aubusson woven by the Atelier Goubely.
No. II.
1941.
« L’Œuvre tissée de Gromaire » est modest : 11 cartoons, devised between 1938 and 1944, most of them at Aubusson itself. « His rigorous constructions, his simplifications, his taste for large compositions and great fundamental ideas, his knowledge as a colorist, and to sum it all up his supreme quality as a master and as a worker—all this was destined to make him one of the most perfect tapestry weavers of his time », Jean Cassou would say (Cat. Expo. Marcel Gromaire, Paris, Musée National d’Art moderne, 1963). It was Guillaume Janneau, at the head of the Mobilier National, who called on him in 1938, convinced that his style (simplification of forms, geometric drawing outlined in blacks, influence of Cubism, limited palette …) would respond advantageously to the new aesthetic problems that tapestry had to solve in order to be reborn (simplified color ranges, synthetic cartoons, …): first with an order on the theme of the four elements, followed by another (« Les Saisons »), intended to be executed at Aubusson. In 1940, Gromaire joined Lurçat and Dubreuil there. Working alone, meticulously (many drawings were preparatory to the Cartoon, painted, and not numbered as they were with Lurçat), and in close collaboration with Suzanne Goubely, who would weave all his cartoons, he spent 4 years in Aubusson, devoting all his creative energies to tapestry. After the war, he left the Creuse, and no longer produced cartoons, leaving Lurçat in the role of major initiator of the revival of tapestry. « La mare aux oiseaux » is characteristic of Gromaire’s woven aesthetic, owing to its extremely decorative and almost dreamlike character (far removed from his graphic works), to the choice of subject—both animal and vegetal (and even architectural)—and to its being strongly inspired by the Creuse. What stands out above all is the extraordinary density, the profusion, the abundance,… that make Gromaire’s woven work so inimitable. This tapestry was featured in the exhibition « La tapisserie française du Moyen-Âge à nos jours » held at the Musée d’Art moderne in 1946. Bibliography : Le Point, Aubusson et la renaissance de la tapisserie, mars 1946, reproduite p.34 Muraille et laine, éditions pierre Tisné, 1946, ill. n°51 André Lejard (dir.), French Tapestry, Paul Elek publishers, 1946, reproduit p.103 Cat Expo., Tapisseries d’Aubusson, Luxembourg, Galerie d’art municipale, 1982, n°3 Cat. Expo., Gromaire, œuvre tissée, Aubusson, Musée de la tapisserie, 1995, reproduit p.51 Cat. Expo. La Manufacture des Gobelins dans la première moitié du XXe siècle, Beauvais, Galerie nationale de la tapisserie, 1999
